In response to John Paul, I will say for myself that as a Mormon, I welcome any person of faith who will stand with me and others who support Christian values. I don’t want to hijack MoSop’s blog for political purposes, but I want to say that I find it disturbing that Sarah Palin has been called a “radical” for believing in a Creator and in the sanctity of human life (this is not an endorsement of Palin or McCain or anybody else—just an observation). If those are radical beliefs, then I will gladly be called a radical Christian (my other radical views include love thy neighbor, judge not that ye be not judged, and suffer the little children). Anybody who will declare those things with me, I will gladly call a friend and a brother (or sister).

All faith systems are under attack as never before and very hateful things are being said every day on the web and inciting the unstable to acts of violence. President Hunter’s words are prophetic for the one who follows Christ and I believe more and more that includes many more than we realize. I am not a Mormon, “but I approve this post”.

President Hunter followed the example of Jesus Christ when faced with a life-threatening situation.

“On 7 February 1993, he was on the Brigham Young University campus to speak at a nineteen-stake fireside and [video satellite] broadcast. As President Hunter rose to address the nearly twenty thousand young adults assembled in the Marriott Center, an assailant threatened him, shouting, ‘Stop right there!’ The man claimed to have a bomb and a detonator and ordered everyone to leave the stand except President Hunter. Many people did leave, yet President Hunter resolutely stayed at the pulpit, with two security guards. Although threatened by what looked like a gun, President Hunter firmly declined to read the written statement the man handed to him. When students spontaneously began to sing ‘We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet,’ the assailant was momentarily distracted. [Some people] rushed him and took him into custody. … Security guards lowered President Hunter to the floor for safety.

“There was, of course, a considerable commotion in the audience, but soon a reasonable calm returned. After a few moments to collect himself, President Hunter made a second approach to the microphone and read the opening line of his prepared text: ‘Life has a fair number of challenges in it.’ He stopped, looked over the audience, and added, ‘As demonstrated.’ Then he went on with his message as though nothing had happened”
(found in Ensign, Aug. 1994, pp. 11–12).

Post script to the story: The man’s name was Cody Judy. The suitcase with the “bomb” turned out to be filled with papers and a telephone. During an interview on Salt Lake City’s X96′s show, Judy claimed that he “was not really lying, but simply referring to a Book of Mormon by its initials, BOM”. He was arrested, convicted and served eight years in prison. At one point in the prison sentence he escaped and had to be tracked by K-9s. In another bizarre side-note, in 2002 Judy ran for the U.S. House of Representatives as a write-in candidate. He received 8 votes.